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This is Stephen's spin on Zombies. These things are Zombie like, but they aren't really zombies. These things seem to still be alive, needing food, not just brains and if you cut them, they will still bleed. Yet, they no longer think and they are fairly mindless, like a zombie. Stephen riffs off zombies.

I found this book entertaining and I didn't want to put the story down. Stephen is amazing at writing characters and I was drawn in by Clay, Tom and Alice. We meet them in the heart of Boston when the pulse goes out and the world gets extremely crazy. There was blood and gore and violence in this book, but I have to say, I was expecting a lot more and there could have been more.

The people who didn't use their phones had to figure out what happened and the new rules of the game:

Rule 1: don't use a cell phone
Rule 2: Zombies sleep at night or they go away and so the night is safe and the day is dangerous
rule 3: these zombies flock like birds

I want to talk more about the plot, so I'm going to get Spoilery.


Spoiler Warning:



The main bad zombie comes toward the middle of the book when they are in New Hampshire. The gang finds their way to an Academy and they find out what the zombies do at night, they reset and look like they are sleeping. Clay helps to move some gas tankers in the middle of their sleep quarters and they blow up around 1,000 of them. They get less blood thirsty and they evolve. They are telepathic and communicate through dreams and speaking to your mind or they can take over your body. They can also fly. Yes, Flying zombies.

How the zombies were defeated was a solid ending, but the last chapter was a downer. He leaves the ending on a cliff-hanger, or with no answers given, which, I don't mind that device when used sparingly, but Clay has a kid and the kid was up in Maine when the pulse happens, so he is looking for the kid the whole book. The kid was turned to a zombie. The gang blows up the zombies at the climax and Clay hopes his son wasn't there. Clay goes looking for his kid and his kid isn't dead, of course. I think the book would have been more clean and bold if he didn't find his kid and meet up with Tom at the end. I don't like the fact that he was able to find the kid. It feels too neat somehow for this book. It made for a weak finish to the story, in my opinion. It seemed like a fairytale.

I thought this was middle of the pack as far as Stephen King books go. This was an engaging read and I enjoyed my experience reading this, but it's not one of his best either. It's right in the middle of the pack.

It certainly conveys how society walks such a thin rope of functioning and anarchy. It does make one think. It's apocalyptic. Now, I need to see the movie. Take away: be wary of technology.